The victories were a clear rebuke of Trump’s politics, but also a referendum on the Democratic party’s own centrism that is complicit in the violence of masked men hunting immigrants, the funding of a genocide and the denial of healthcare to citizens of the world’s wealthiest country.

…Hakeem Jeffries, who is running for speaker of the House, will not commit to holding a vote on abolishing ICE. He opposes Medicare for All. He has said he will not hold Trump accountable for the human rights violations committed, portraying it as a question of “getting even” rather than achieving justice where it was denied. Chuck Schumer, who holds similar positions, has an extraordinarily low approval rating – yet plans to run for majority leader in the Senate. Electeds are questioning whether these men should hold these roles.

But the dissent must also come from us, as it has been. We need to demand an end to the fast violence of guns on our streets trained on our neighbors, bombs dropped from the sky and the slow violence of people dying because their healthcare was denied or their food stamps were cut.

We need to organize, and mobilize, to demand the multi-racial democracy we were promised – not a playground for the rich to get richer on the time and labor and lives of the poor.

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[–] 26 points 1 day ago (1 child)

it kind of varied with region. Here in Texas both Talarico & Hinajosa are certainly more centrist in their approaches, and I don't think open progressives could have won a Statewide elections here like they did.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

    Completely agree, but for anyone not in Texas you need to understand that for a lot of people here "average centrist" is basically "militant communist terrorism".

    In retrospect (and purely, only in retrospect), if we had packed the ballots with progressives they'd have gotten in anyway. I feel strongly that the election was decided here in Texas by low information voters doing the opposite of what they did last time because that's all they could think to do. I really don't think it went any deeper than that. The fascists knew that about their base, that's why all their ads have always been fear based. This time, real world fear was flying in the face of the manufactured fear, and it became impossible to ignore any longer. Many of these people have never left the state. They've only seen six dollar diesel in memes about California. When they saw that at home it was like seeing a tiger in their kitchen. They ran for the voting booths the same way they'd run for the shotgun.

    Under no circumstances would I have ever placed a bet on a statewide blue sweep! I remember Anne Richards, I feel like she'd be happy about this outcome.

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